February 28, 2014

Training for 2/28/14

It’s the last day of February! That means the beginning of Daylight Saving Time and spring are both getting close. Finally!

Today, I went to another hot yoga class. We had a substitute teacher. I enjoyed the class, but I think she took it easy on us since she was filling in and didn’t really know us. That class usually kicks my ass harder than it did today.

This weekend, I’m planning on 4 to 6 miles tomorrow, and then a longer run Sunday. My friend Allison has volunteered to do 10 miles with me, to try out the speed I need to run to lead the 2:50 pace group at the Ocean City half marathon in April, even though she’s going for a PR in the Shamrock half (now only two weeks away) and the pace I have to run is a full two minutes per mile slower than her regular long run pace.

Anyway, I figured out if I do two minutes of running at 10:00/mile followed by three minutes of walking at 16:00/mile, that works out to about 12:54/mile and a 2:49:xx half marathon finishing time. So we’re going to do 10 miles in the overall time it usually would take me to do 15.

Clark said it’s funny I have to learn to run even slower than I already am, considering how out of running shape I am right now. I said it was kinda ironic, and he asked if that made me a hipster runner haha.

Other than running, my only plans for the weekend involve watching NASCAR. The second race of the season is Sunday in Phoenix.

Since February is over, it’s time for my monthly summary.

Mileage:

Week 1 (Feb. 1): 4.9 miles

Week 2 (Feb. 2-11): 11

Week 3 (Feb. 9-15): 10.5

Week 4 (Feb. 16-22): 19.3

Week 5 (Feb. 23-28): 19.5

Total: 65.2 miles

Lame compared to a normal month’s total, but more than double last month’s total, so at least I’m moving in the right direction.

March holds my favorite race of the whole year, the Shamrock Marathon. It’s the half for me this time, of course, plus the 8K the day before. This is the first year they’re giving a third medal for the Whale or Dolphin challenge completers as soon as we finish the half or full marathon, instead of making us wait several weeks for a little pin to arrive in the mail.

I think my friend TK wants to run a 5K/10K sponsored by Chic-Fil-A in Easton the last weekend of March, so that would be my only other race next month. As far as mileage goes, I’d really love to get back up into the triple digits again.